State Department sued over oil-for-food records

The U.S. State Department is being sued for refusing to release records related to the U.N. oil-for-food scandal, claiming the world body must first give approval.

The public-interest group Judicial Watch filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the State Department allegedly failed to respond to three letters seeking an explanation as to why State would need permission of a foreign entity to respond to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Judicial Watch filed its FOIA request Nov. 22. In a Dec. 6 reply, an agency official wrote: "Also, items 1 and 2 of your request are clearly U.N. documents. ... The State Department would send any such records/documents contained in its files to the U.N. for concurrence in release which would add to the time needed to complete the processing of your request."

The legal watchdog group said it is "not aware of any law or statute that allows the U.N. to trump U.S. law concerning the release of documents in the possession of the State Department."

The U.N. also is not allowed to review, redact or withhold records sought by U.S. citizens from a U.S. government agency.

Judicial Watch said that after more than 400 FOIA requests, this is the first time any U.S. government agency has asserted it must seek permission from a foreign entity.

"The State Department's non-response to our FOIA open records request is unprecedented," said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Since when does the United States government let Kofi Annan and the U.N. decide what U.S. government documents are made available to the American people?"

Meanwhile, in the House probe of the oil-for-food scandal, Rep. Henry J. Hyde, R-Ill., issued subpeonas Wednesday to two key contractors, the French bank BNP Paribas and Geneva-based Cotecna Inspection SA, the Washington Times reported.

Cotecna employed the son of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan while holding a major monitoring contract for the program.

Lawmakers said they might expand their investigation to more than a dozen U.N. agencies.

Last week,a U.N.-appointed panel probing the scandal issued a report that prompted Annan to suspend the official who ran the program, Benon Sevan.

Sevan is suspected of soliciting discount vouchers to sell oil from Saddam. The U.N. official denies any wrongdoing.

The program, from 1997-2003, was designed to alleviate the suffering of Iraqis under strict international sanctions by allowing the Saddam regime to sell oil to buy food and other humanitarian goods.

Investigators believe Saddam skimmed off $10 billion or more from secret oil sales and kickbacks on oil-for-food contracts.

---

Special offer:

Get the U.N. out of the U.S.!